Figured that since Photobucket has screwed most of us with hosting images, I should just make my own site. I use Weebly at work for my classroom site, and like the features, so I figured why not make my own. It has a ton of pictures on it, but will be updated frequently as I take new/better images of builds.

But for now, hope you take time and stop by!

http://philciborowski.weebly.com/

Enjoy!

Well with the successful completion of my Tsekoa II kit form Model Slipways (see below), I thought it time to get another winter project to work on.

After a lot of back and forth, I chose the 1/43 scale Assurance class tug, again from Model Slipways..

It arrived in July and I have been pouring over the directions and parts and other builds, making notes and lists of what I want to do to mine.. but so far all that was done, was to pull the hull out of the box, hang the plans, and build a temporary stand.

This one as well will have lights, and I am thinking a smoke unit too.

Just went and read the whole UMX T-28 thread, and was inspired to pick up the prop from the UMX Corsair to put on it. Completely worth the 5 bucks, as it made the little Trojan feel like a completely different plane.

I spent the time after work today making my micro look like the 1100mm version I have, with some paint and decal stripes.

Not a huge change, but just something to make it stand out from others.

Well this project has been about 12 years in the making.... And then some!


I got this kit back in 2004 or so for Christmas from the parents. It seemed easy enough and in my skillset at the time to get it finished within a year or 2.

I built up a lot of the smaller items - crane, lifeboat, davit, mast, etc. and when it came time to get the electronics in, things stalled. I had purchased a vantec speed control with the kit, and lost it (I have it now)... to top it off the motor couplings needed to be tapped and drilled which I could not do.

So there she sat for a long period of time.... smaller parts finished, rudder servo installed, rudders hooked up, shafts installed.

It sat for a few years, before I brought it to NH thinking I could get some work done, but nothing... then last year I moved from place in Mass, to where I am now, and it came along again.


FINALLY I said screw this and got around to working on it - I was tired of it being the neglected build...

Upon opening the box, I noticed a rudder shaft broken, which has been the bane of my existence since restarting. Other than that, and trying to clean up a lot of the mess I had made with the shafts, its been pretty straight forward. Motors had 6:1 reduction gears on them, but I since removed it after testing in the lake on a choppy day. They were removed o give the 550 motors a bit more kick in pushing through heavy seas and high winds.

Now having "lost" that speed control, I...Continue Reading

So I had been looking forward to flying off the lake and messing with my 24" Miss Geico for a few weeks now.

Ran up to my parents lake house in NH, and was all excited - but the weather..well it was just too windy so I had to wait.

Since the wind was too high to to try flying, i got the boat - my 24" miss geico out and was having a nice run on the stock battery... and then I flipped it about 100yards from shore. So in the lake i went. Now since I tape up my boats with hockey tape I knew that there would be no rush or concern of water leaking in.. and when i finally got back to the dock with her and opened it up, there wasnt a drop inside.


Finally after dinner, the wind died down and the lake calmed enough to try out flying with floats on my Sport Cub S. She took off better than I expected, no real concerns - had a few lazy ovals and figure 8 patterns before bringing it in for a landing. No real issues and she seemed really stable on the water -until the flipping wind did just that. Flipped my airplane! So in to get the boat, and out it went to get the plane. While pushing it shoved down and sunk. At that point i thought all was lost. Took her apart and dried it out over night and this morning tried it out - and she worked perfectly.

Now I thought hey, lets try the icon! So swapped planes and same thing. She did great on takeoff ( no real wing dip, since I knew what to expect thanks to the videos and posts I read about it). nice calm...Continue Reading

Picked this up a few summers back.

Box stock so far, with the only things modifies are shortening the cooling pickup tube- to make the flow better, and swap the prop out with a balanced metal one.

Stock electronics, but shes fun to mess around with on the big lake. I have put a coat of fleet wax on it as well - water just beads off, and by the walk up the dock to the house shes dry again.

I also added thin strips of black to the insides of the canopy, to make the separation lines.

Proboat Miss Geico 24" with upgraded prop (2 min 35 sec)

First off I have to say that I love this tank- its a fantastic piece. Picked this one (and a Pz IV) up at the Local Hobby Store back in February, and the price was the best one I have seen for it.

With all my tanks I just apply a weathering coat after the decals to dirty things up a bit. After, a shot of dullcoat seals everything in, and its ready to go (outside)!

It comes with the mud colored paint on it, but I think it needs some 3d textured mud as well, so it will be added on in the future.

I have 5 tanks now, so I have to label the controls- which is where the label maker comes in handy.

But there is one minor shortcoming that can become an issue if not careful. The bracket for the gun elevation can come loose, and as a result you will end up with a main gun that is stuck at the highest point.

in the pics below, you can see that the green piece in my hand is what comes off the side of the gun. its like it didnt have enough glue (or strong enough glue) on it. A simple fix with some more CA makes it all better. I think total time for the repair was about 10 minutes from the first screw coming out, to the last turn. Not terribly hard, as its a well engineered piece to disassemble.

I have to say that growing up, my brother was always the one into tanks.. I was more the train, airplane, boat person.

Fast forward to May of last year, and one chance conversation at work, sparked my new interest in RC airsoft tank combat.

A few co-workers and I were in my classroom having lunch and talking about hobbies (I have some plastic model airplanes that I built hanging from my ceiling), and the discussion got into what else we do. One said RC tanks, and from there my questions (and interest) snowballed. So much so that as I write this, I currently own 5 tanks.

Now when visiting my parents, my brother and I take over the entire back yard with them, and spend a good deal of time running around blasting away, having tank battles.

Well with all this snow being a major pain to most, figured I would go out with my 1/16 Tiger I tank and have some fun in our shoveled driveway... Nothing exciting, just some shooting practice on my targets.

The targets are made from music wire, that is bent in a U shape. The actual target itself is from Taigen, but just scanned and printed on card stock from a laser printer.
Duct tape holds it in place. You can see nice indentations where you have met your mark too, and since they stick in the ground they are sturdy and dont get blown over as much..


The tank is stock, other than the weathering job I did to it. In the packed, powdery snow that was on the driveway, it had no issues. I think anything deeper or more wet would be a concern of mine. I do plan on doing a good amount of water proofing to make it more versatile in muddy or wet conditions in the future.

Yesterday was a great day for December. With little to no wind and temps in the 50s it was a fantastic day to be outside and fly some new airplanes.

I was lucky enough to get 4 new planes in recent weeks, 3 of them as gifts from loved ones. My fleet has grown from the Sport Cub S and UMX MIG15 to include more UMX planes- Corsair, T28 and Habu-s and the Eflite P51. So 5 smaller planes plus this massive mustang, left me with a lot of choices on what to pack in the back of the ole G8.

Ended up bringing the Mustang, Habu corsair and t28. Went out about 1030 M and went through one battery in each plane. Started with the corsair, which had me speechless - it flys great and is so nimble and manuverable. Had it looping and rolling and doing slow and low fly-bys. Then the t28 - with those massive ailerons it snap rolled over and over. Put it into a series of collective loops and had fun with touch and go's. The new Habu was up next and she flew as I had read about. But I think they forgot the flipping glue on the gear clips, first one then on a later flight the other failed on landing- leading to some rash on the wingtips. Nothing some paint can't fix.

UMX T28 Trojan (0 min 50 sec)

Then it was the mustangs turn. Biggest most powerful plane I have flown/I own. While it wasn't the first flight, I was still nervous about bringing it back in one piece. Flaps down 3/4 throttle and off she went. Slow and low circuits and some figure 8s. Then progressively higher and...Continue Reading

So, about me..

where to start? currently live in Newton, MA., but am from the sticks (east end) of Long Island, NY. (35 mins from the Hamptons). Have been into RC boats/cars for almost my entire life... along with NASCAR and F1, I am big into computers (built my own) and cars (have a '09 G8 GXP and a '14 SS). I love boating and jetskiing (have both) and when not out and about enjoy video games, as well as HO trains and scale models. The images below are two 8' display cases that I got from my old boss. I used to work at a hobby shop on weekends from black friday to Easter. Had been doing that from about 14, up to when he retired in 2005. The cases were too big for him and he figured I could use them.


Airplanes and flight are nothing new to me. I was planning to be an aeronautical engineer - heck placed 3rd in a national NASA contest in 1997, but things happened and I chose to teach art instead. Now I teach middle school technology (graphic and digital design mostly).

My current RC "toys" include the 2 Taigen tanks below (1/16 scale airsoft), a Proboat Miss Geico 24, with new prop, and cooling system mods. I also have a Tamyia 1/20 Yamaha 40EX sailboat (shes about 12 years old at this point) and a Model Slipways 1/32 scale Tsekoa II bouy tender that I have to finish building. My airplanes are mostly UMX - MiG 15, Corsair, T-28 and the Sport Cub. I also have the new e-flite Mustang.

I have been lurking around here for a few years, and thought I would jump in and join the fun only recently. So far (with one exception) everyone has been really helpful and friendly. I can hope that it continues as such too!

Really can't stand the "holier than thou" attitude of some people. There is NO need to go out of your way to be a pompous jerk to anyone, especially if you don't know them... its fine if you have an opinion, and disagree with others, and its perfectly ok to ignore someone if you don't like what they are saying... but to carry on and to be arrogant, and downright ignorant.. and in PMs? really?

oh well. back to enjoying my hobbies.